Advocating for language and communication access for Michigan’s Children

The Michigan Coalition for Deaf, Hard of Hearing’s, and DeafBlind People’s Legislative Committee introduced Michigan House Bill 4944 and 4963, which are integral components of a collaborative legislative initiative aimed at advocating for language and communication access coverage for children in Michigan. The bills highlight the necessity of early intervention and access to hearing services, making it easier for families. Our mission is to raise awareness and advocate for these bills to pass in Michigan.

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Current Status:

House INsurance committee has passed HB4944 & HB4963!!
Next step: Waiting on vote on the house Floor.

Why do we need Let MI Child Hear?

Thank you to Global Interpreting Services for allowing us to share their video.

Status Updates

02/07/2024 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee has passed bills HB4944 & HB4963! Now we wait to see when it goes to the House floor to be voted on.
01/28/2024 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee will vote in February
11/10/2023 MIHC Update:
- House Insurance Committee now has two vacant seats that need to be filled. Committee will not reconvene until seats are filled. Could take up to 120 days to fill the seats. Now hoping for February or March vote. Stay tuned and continue to spread awareness.
11/09/2023 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee has cancelled their session. Hoping for vote at 11/16 meeting.
11/02/2023 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee has pushed the vote back another week.
10/26/2023 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee has cancelled their session since the House cancelled their session.
10/19/2023 MHIC Update:
- House Insurance Committee took testimony on House Bill 4944 & 4963. The testimonies were very well received.
Bill is expected to go up for vote in February 2024

Show Your Support

If you support these bills, we urge you to send a short personalized email of support to the Michigan House Insurance Committee members. Members need to know their constituents support the bills. Remember to keep your memo short and clear.

To open your email client and send an email to all members in a single email: click here
If you prefer to have an email sent to you of contacts of MHIC members: click here
To copy all the emails to your clipboard: click here.
If you prefer to send individual emails, click the names below:
Brenda Carter, Mike McFall, Mike Harris; Kelly Breen, Julie Rogers, Helena Scott, Stephanie Young, John Fitzgerald, Kristian Grant, Greg Markkanen, Robert Bezotte, Joseph Aragona, William Bruck, Jerry Neyer, Rachelle Smit, Penelope Tsernoglou, Jason Hoskins

Click Here for sample letters.

Next steps for us:
House Bills 4944 and 4963 has been passed by the House Insurance Committee! We wait on dates the bills will be brought to the House floor for a vote.

Please continue to show support and spreading awareness during this process. The support letters or text messaging drive are important to show your Representative that you support these bills. See below for other ways to show your support.

Let MI Child Hear Bills

There are approximately 400 children in Michigan every year who either have hearing loss or will acquire one by school age. With the assistance of hearing aids and early intervention services, the vast majority of these Deaf and Hard of Hearing children can achieve speech and language milestones equivalent to those of typically hearing children by the age of five. Currently, 28 states have enacted laws that ensure insurance coverage for children’s hearing aids. We are advocating for Michigan to join these states.

Michigan House Bill 4944 would require hearing aid coverage for children through eighteen years old. Michigan House Bill 4963 would require hearing related services and devices for children which include ear molds, remote microphone, speech and language pathology and audiology services. You can find detailed information about these bills below.

HIB-4944-HEARING AIDS

Sponsors: Dale Zorn (district 34), Samantha Steckloff, Veronica Paiz, Jason Morgan, Kelly Breen, Noah Arbit, Carrie Rheingans, John Fitzgerald, Curtis VanderWall, Erin Byrnes, Emily Dievendorf, Lori Stone, Stephanie A. Young

9-7-2023-HIB-4944-Hearing-Aids Download

HIB-4963 HEARING-RELATED-SERVICES-DEVICES

Sponsors: Samantha Steckloff (district 19), Dale Zorn, Veronica Paiz, Jason Morgan, John Fitzgerald, Kelly Breen, Carrie Rheingans, Noah Arbit, Curtis VanderWall, Erin Byrnes, Emily Dievendorf, Lori Stone, Stephanie A. Young

9-7-2023-HIB-4963Hearing-Related-Services-Devices-1 Download

How Can You Get Involved?

Stay connected for the latest updates. These bills have been referred to the Committee on Insurance and Financial Services. We’ll need your support by contacting your State Representative to request their endorsement of these bills.

Two ways you can take direct action:

Use our templates to craft messages for your elected officials in support of these bills.
Use the “Text to to sign a support letter” feature to directly engage in support letter campaigns and show your support by texting “follow letmichildhear” to 50409. The bot will then guide you and send a letter of support on your behalf to your local Representative.

Below, you’ll find a collection of resources designed to empower you in taking action. If you’re unsure who to contact, click the buttons below to locate your senator or state representative. If you use the text messaging method, it will automatically find your Representative for you.

Letter Templates for MS Word and PDF

10-5-2023-LettertoStateRepresentatives-PDF Download

10-5-2023-LettertoStateRepresentatives – Word Doc Download

Click Here to Find Your State Representative

Text to send a letter of support.

For letter of support details you can send a text message of ‘Follow letmichildhear‘ to 50409 to receive updates and send a letter of support. The text messaging bot will walk you through the process and send a letter of support on your behalf to the elected officials that represent your district.

If you are a Deaf and Hard of Hearing ally: